Apprentice loser: I'd have fired rivals if this had been real world

Published on Wednesday 22 April 2009 21:58

NEW Yorker Kimberly Davis has become the latest candidate to be sacked from The Apprentice – and said that in the real world she would have fired Philip Taylor and Lorraine Tighe from her team herself.

Last night's show saw candidates tasked to create a cereal brand and a character, design some packaging, put together a marketing campaign and film a television advert.

Ms Davis, 33, a marketing consultant, headed the Ignite team, while Kate Walsh was in charge of Empire. Team Empire came up with the idea of a "Parrot Pirate", while Ignite bickered and Mr Taylor bulldozed his character "Pants Man" through, despite Ms Tighe's protestations.

Speaking after the show, Ms Davis, who took feuding Mr Taylor and Ms Tighe back with her into the boardroom, said: "If this was the real world and I had my own company, and if any of these behaviours had started up in the real world, I would have had one conversation with them – I would have given them a warning.

"And if they'd kicked off again I would have dismissed them … I do not tolerate that kind of behaviour in the real world."

Having spent so much time arguing, Ignite left themselves with no time to design their own box, and in a last-minute panic they left the designers to come up with the idea. With no design on the back of the cereal box, Ignite were left to rely on "Pants Man" and Mr Taylor's self-penned jingle.

Sir Alan Sugar said Ignite's campaign would have been "funny if it was in the middle of a Harry Enfield show, but to actually use it to sell products is not funny; it's stupid".

Sir Alan told Ms Davis and her team-mates: "Kimberly, you have a marketing background, you should have really walked this thing – you're the most qualified.

"The rotten idea was the rotten core in the beginning. And Philip – very cocksure. People that bulldoze ideas through is not what I'm looking for.

"Lorraine, because you haven't been a team leader before I'm going to let you stay.

"Kimberly – you're fired!"